Needham Times editorial: Hillside study should have been thorough

Thursday

Oct 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2013 at 4:53 AM

As the Needham School Committee got ready to ask Special Town Meeting for funding for a feasibility study, board members continued to maintain that Cricket Field should remain part of that study too – because the prefeasibility study showed it made sense to include it.

In August 2012, the Needham Times published an editorial asking the Needham School Committee to continue to study Cricket Field as a possible site for Hillside Elementary School.

The School Committee did, in fact, include Cricket Field in a prefeasibility study. The study found that rebuilding Hillside on Hillside could be logistically difficult and costly since it would require environmental remediation of the site. Building a new school at DeFazio Field would be problematic particularly because it would require town-wide redistricting. The Cricket Field site did not pose any of those difficulties.

As the School Committee got ready to ask Special Town Meeting for funding for a feasibility study, board members continued to maintain that Cricket Field should remain part of that study too – because the prefeasibility study showed it made sense to include it.

Then, on Oct. 22, the School Committee backed down – sort of -- to political pressure to remove Cricket Field from consideration. Board Chairman Joe Barnes told selectmen that while the school board still stands by its belief to gather as much information as possible but that it would not study Cricket Field without permission from the Park and Recreation Commission, which has jurisdiction over it.

We are disappointed. There is no legal requirement for the School Committee to ask Park and Recreation to study that land.

Yes, it is true that the Park and Recreation Commission could refuse to give up Cricket Field even if a feasibility study showed it was the best possible option for rebuilding Hillside. But it cannot stop the school board from studying it.

One could argue – and many have – that including Cricket Field as an option does not make sense because the Park and Recreation Commission will never give it up. So the site does, in fact, have a disadvantage. But so do the Hillside site and DeFazio Field. Yet no one is removing those options from the table. Why? Because Hillside – and eventually Mitchell – must be rebuilt, and, unfortunately, no site in town is ideal for the project. The pros and cons of each must be carefully weighed before a final decision is made.

The Park and Recreation Commission, by voting, as it did, to not allow permission for the school board to study the site, has prematurely stopped a responsible decision-making process that must happen for the town to make the best decision for all of its residents. The School Committee, under pressure from selectmen, contributed to that mistake by agreeing to ask for permission it does not need.

As for Special Town Meeting, despite the events of the past several days, the article it will consider next week is unchanged – it is a simple request for funding for a feasibility study and puts no limitations on which sites will be studied. Although the School Committee will distribute an FAQ-style document explaining that it will study only sites under its jurisdiction or sites which it has permission to study from that site’s jurisdictional body, the article itself will remain unchanged and won’t officially restrict options, just as the MSBA requires. We urge Special Town Meeting to approve the request. Hillside – and Mitchell – must be rebuilt.

Recreation and Sports

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